Politics
08 februari 2005
Superman
Classic Superman
Posted by willy at 11:04 pm to 07 - Hero | Politics | Comments (0)
MainPolitics
29 november 2004
Aeneas by Bernini
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1618-19) by Bernini, Gianlorenzo (1598 - 1680)
sculpture in marble, height 220 cm. Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy
This marble group represents the moment in which Aeneas, hero of Troy, escaped from the city on fire, rescuing his father Anchises and his son Ascanius. Aeneas has a lion skin over his shoulders as cushion, his father Anchises on his shoulders carries the 'Penates', the household gods, his son Ascanius has a small lamp to light their way, but also suggesting the eternal flame later established in the cult of Vesta at Rome.
Aeneas was the son of Anchises and the goddess Venus. He was a cousin of King Priam of Troy, and was the leader of Troy's Dardanian allies during the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy, he led a band of Trojan refugees to Italy and became the founder of Roman culture (although not of the city of Rome itself). He was the mythical progenitor of the Julian gens through his son Ascanius, or "Iulus," and Virgil made him the hero of his epic, the Aeneid.
In the Trojan War, Aeneas was one of the most respected of the Trojan heroes, perhaps second only to Hector. He engaged in abortive single combat with the Greek heroes Diomedes, Idomeneus, and Achilles; twice he was rescued through the intervention of gods. When Troy was sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas fought on until he was ordered by the gods to flee. He finally left the city, carrying his father and the household gods (see Penates) on his shoulders; his wife Creusa was lost in the confusion, but his son Ascanius escaped with him.
Aeneas and the Trojan remnant then wandered across the Mediterranean, hounded by the enmity of Juno. In one of the most famous episodes of the Aeneid, they were cast ashore near the north African city of Carthage, where they were hospitably received by Dido, the city's founder and queen. There ensued a love affair between Dido and Aeneas which threatened to distract Aeneas from his destiny in Italy. Mercury was sent to order Aeneas to depart and Aeneas, forced to choose between love and duty, reluctantly sailed away. Dido, mad with grief, committed suicide. When Aeneas later encountered her shade on a trip to the underworld, she turned away from him, still refusing to forgive his desertion of her.
In Italy, Aeneas allied himself with King Latinus, and was betrothed to Latinus' daughter, Lavinia. Lavinia's former suitor, Turnus, goaded by jealousy and the machinations of Juno, declared war against the intruder, and a period of bloody fighting (the Italian Wars) followed. Aeneas was victorious, eventually killing Turnus in single combat, and went on to found the city of Lavinium. At the end of his life, Aeneas was deified at the request of his mother, Venus, and became the god Indiges.
In the Aeneid, Aeneas' most common epithet is "pius," and Virgil presents him as the exemplar of the Roman virtues of devotion to duty and reverence for the gods.
Posted by willy at 01:12 pm to 07 - Hero | Politics | Comments (0)
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David's the Death of Marat
Death of Marat (1793) by Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
Oil on canvas, 165 x 128 cm. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.
Jean-Paul Marat (1743-93) was a French revolutionary, radical politician, physician, physicist and journalist. He studied medicine at Bordeaux, Paris, Holland and London; then practiced medicine in England in the 1770s and in Paris from 1777. Simultaneously he went into scientific research in optics and electricity and wrote several scientific works. He was also interested in political issues; he joined the Cordelier Club. In September 1789 he started publishing his radical paper 'L’ami du peuple' (The Friend of the People), which provoked and justified revolutionary violence. In 1792 he was elected a deputy to the Convention. With Robespierre and Danton he overthrew Girondins and helped to instigate the Reign of Terror. He was already very ill and could work only sitting in his bath, when on July 13, 1793 he was assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who was later executed.
Jacques Louis David was a fervent revolutionary and a personal friend of Marat. On 15 October that same year he presented the picture to the National Assembly. It became the symbol of the French revolution.
Posted by willy at 09:37 am to 09 - Revolutionary | Politics | Comments (0)
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Delacroix's Liberty
Liberty Leading the People (28 July 1830), 1830 by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).
Oil on canvas. 260 x 325 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
"Although I didn't fight, I'll at least paint for our country!"
With this painting Delacroix responded to the July revolution of 1830 against Charles X (king of France 1824-30) and absolutism in France, which finished with serious democratic reforms. As a result the new 'citizen king' Louis-Phillippe was elected and his power was restricted; France became a bourgeois monarchy. Delacroix wrote to his brother, a general: ‘Since I have not fought and conquered for the fatherland, I can at least paint on its behalf.’ To the left of Liberty, a man wearing a top hat, is Delacroix himself. The boy with pistols on the right was perhaps the inspiration for the character of Gavroche in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. The new king Louis-Phillippe bought the work for 3,000 francs, but never exhibited it.
Posted by willy at 09:22 am to 09 - Revolutionary | Politics | Comments (1)